Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil has been released from federal immigration detention following a US judge’s order on Friday.
The former Columbia University graduate student, who left a federal facility in Louisiana, is expected to head to New York to reunite with his US citizen wife and newborn son.
This marks a major victory for rights groups that challenged what they called the Trump administration’s unlawful targeting of a pro-Palestinian activist.
Mr Khalil, a prominent figure in protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, was arrested by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan on March 8.
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US President Donald Trump has called the protests antisemitic and vowed to deport foreign students who took part.
After hearing oral arguments from lawyers for Mr Khalil and for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US District Judge Michael Farbiarz in New Jersey ordered DHS to release him from custody at a jail for immigrants in rural Louisiana immediately.
Judge Farbiarz said the government had made no attempt to rebut evidence provided by Mr Khalil’s lawyers that he was not a flight risk nor a danger to the public.
“There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish the petitioner [Khalil],” Judge Farbiarz said as he ruled from the bench, adding that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional.
The Trump administration has argued that non-citizens who participate in such demonstrations should be deported, as it considers their views antisemitic.’
Protesters and civil rights groups say the administration is conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel to silence dissent.
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The US government filed notice on Friday evening to appeal Mr Khalil’s release.
Mr Khalil said that no one should be detained for protesting Israel’s war in Gaza.
He said his time in the detention facility in Louisiana had shown him “a different reality about this country that supposedly champions human rights and justice”.
“No human is illegal,” he said when a reporter asked what message he would like to send the public.